I like Klein a lot, but to suggest the attendance loss is only because of Beckham isn’t necessarily borne out by the figures. 2003 - 21,983 2004 - 23,809 2005 - 24,204 2006 - 20,814 2007 - 24,215 (½ season of Beckham) 2008 - 26,009 (Beckham) 2009 - 20,827 (½ season of Beckham) 2010 - 21,437 (½ season of Beckham) 2011 - 23,335 (Beckham) 2012 - 23,136 (Beckham) 2013 - 22,152 2014 - 20,811 (as of week 19) 2004/2005 had better average attendance than all but the first two years of Beckham's tenure. 2013 is barely more than 200 people ahead of the first year of SHC and is down more than 10% from 2004 when LA didn't have anywhere near the star power of its 2013 counterpart nor was it coming off of back to back MLS Cups. I'm ok with Klein towing the party line in public, but if he genuinely believes sub 23k attendance is purely based on Beckham leaving the team then I'm genuinely worried about the direction of the business side of things.
We always have better attendance in the fall, and that will bring the average up, but damn, that needs improvement big time.
Yep, but it’s a big ask, the team will have to average just under 23,500 per game just to match last year’s disappointing attendance. Also keep in mind of the 8 remaining home games only 3 will be on a Saturday; 2 are on a Friday night, 2 are on Sunday and 1 is on Wednesday – oh and one of the Saturday games may end up being an afternoon game. Honestly even breaking 21,000 looks a tall task at this point in the season.
There will probably be a couple of sellouts. I think it's doable. Agreed that just meeting last year is not good enough. The team is on a downward slide attendance wise in a world cup year and the economy is improving. Not a good sign.
I am pretty sure the big drop between 2008 and 2009 was due to the recession. I stopped attending in 2010 because the person I shared seats with couldn't afford the seats we had any more. I also know that corporations giving up their season seats on the west side for the same reason. My former company (a very successful and profitable financial company) had season seats for the Galaxy for quite a while via a multi-year package (which ended after 2010). They had similar arrangements in in all major sports in all of the cities where they had offices and gave up all of them up in 2009 due to the recession. In some cases they had had these seats for over 50 years (the Dodgers and Lakers) and multiple seat sets.
Issues I've personally noticed this year: Serial typos on promo materials and a generally more amateurish feel overall The Locker Room Rewards program sucks No Chivas USA "away" game - a nice freebie in fairness, but highlights a scaling back on the perks given to STHs No free STH gift The aforementioned overall crapness of STH perks Aiding Man United in courting SoCal fans The new jersey being more expensive at SHC than independent retailers, pretty much negating my "fan discount" A new one that just occurred to me: the result-based match promo. Full disclosure, I never had an opportunity to use my Pollo Campero vouchers and didn't take advantage of the Buffalo Wildwings promo all that much either. However, a discount on a free Oil Change? How many times am I getting oil changes in a season? What about if the ticket belongs to a 14 year old? Or if a family of five with just one or two cars attends together?
Top one is very well executed and done by the new Galaxy designer (which makes the rest of the stuff so perplexing). Conceptually it veers more in to fine art than design, but whatever. Dallas one is fine, nothing special, but well done Philly one is a fan submission/commission Chivas one looks like something out of an intro to Photoshop class Real Salt Lake is terrible. Also “Our Boys from Brazil”, not sure I’d want any association with Nazi war criminals fictional or otherwise. Portland is well done, some quibbles with execution New England is fantastic, great concept, great execution, best poster of the season by a mile. Most interesting thing about Dan’s is it doesn’t feel out of place with most of the offerings this season.
They're working with someone called the Ames Bros (http://amesbrosshop.com/) for the next few - http://www.lagalaxy.com/news/2014/0...es-bros-commemorative-match-day-poster-series
So I've noticed commercials on 95.5 KLOS in the last several weeks but, still no coverage in sports updates and the like. What needs to be done to get that kind of coverage and game announcements/advertisements? I still never hear anything on espn710am or fox570am. Also, maybe these threads could merge? http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/la-galaxy-marketing-advertising-thread.2001134/
I didn't appreciate the STH entrance being closed at the Southwest gate this past weekend. When I inquired why I was told they needed the people to give away the free t-shirts. That's genius. Let's devalue a STH perk to give away free t-shirts.
The one thing they did with Beckham was significantly increase prices so they pulled a ton more revenue with the same average attendance. Which is the typical plan of an AEG owned sports team. They don't go for the neverending sellout streak like some other organizations. The Los Angeles Kings are in the midst of one now but they are a truely exceptional team with 2 titles and a semi final appearance in the last 3 years. It would be cool to see what the "average ticket price" for each year is.
I'l let you know, I am smarter than you! Why? Because I'm a 22 year old(actually turn 23 on Sat, yay!) social media expert!
Here's mine after pulling it out of my backpack just now. Very cheap/thin but, its free and I actually like thin shirts over thick anyway.
Am I the only one who thinks those posters are tawdry and silly? Even if given one, I would quickly discard it. Why doesn't the team commission an artist with some real talent to do something of quality. Something like this: https://www.behance.net/gallery/1638896/Zlatan-Ibrahimovic-Nike-ad 95% of what the Galaxy puts out is utterly pathetic, (design wise.) It's low rent, gimmicky, and amateur. The game day programs use low resolution images, the collateral and fan materials are a joke. And the attention to detail is awful. I suspect the Galaxy got some novice out of design school who certainly makes a valiant effort. But it pales in comparison to other teams. The only campaign I thought that was remotely decent was the "Champions Live in L.A." But the design elements lack continuity from one thing to the next, implying there's no style guide or standards for achieving a consistent look. Ah well. It's local. It's soccer. And they manage to put up some results. But as a loyal supporter, I am embarrassed with how the small details slip through the cracks. Sadly, I don't think anything will change until someone with some authority recognizes that fact other teams have really eclipsed the Galaxy in visual presence.
Its not just other professional teams, frankly they are behind UCLA and SC in the marketing efforts. I am wondering how many of these things come from having a bean counter in charge of AEG now.
^This my ticket price is probably 2x what it was 10 years ago. Even a 10% reduction in attendance results in significantly more revenue than in the old days. re: marketing, I think the first thing I'd ask is: what are they trying to accomplish? Turn existing fans into rabid ones? Recruit new fans? Which ones, youth teams in bulk or 21-35 year olds that want to drink and sing? its easy to say "do this or that" but it needs to be with a goal of accomplishing something....and I'm not sure the FO has a clear vision of what type of fanbase they are trying to build.
LAG would honestly get more 'bang for the buck' using their newfound Opare cap money to hire this guy: https://www.behance.net/mattcoyle - check out his work for Toronto FC The return on investment would be far worth poaching him from Toronto. Just has a different level of professionalism. I mean it's not like the Galaxy don't have good imagery to work from with Robert Mora's photos. There's just someone who lacks vision in the front office and the aesthetics are managed much in the same way as everything on the team. Trading on past accomplishments only gets you so far. Luckily the team have strung together some results this summer so fans like myself are willing to tolerate the other things.
Couldn't agree more. And I'd add this goes way beyond marketing and design. It transcends every aspect of the club. I don't want to slam the team, that's not very 'fan-like' of me. And admittedly, all of this stuff is easier said in a forum than actually done.
Very talented bloke and LA or at least AEG is in dire need of a Creative Director, but for me the failure is higher up the totem pole with VP of marketing and eventually Klein and Beckerman for failing to recognize their VP is flat out failing. I said it in the Portland thread but three years of declining attendance is a sackable offense just as much as three years of missing the playoffs would be for a coach. For my money the organization we should be looking to is Sporting KC, they are executing at every single level in a way that no other team in MLS is and arguably better than any team ever has (LA 2010-2012 would also be in the running)